One month later
******
Eighteen-year-old Arthur Night carefully aimed his arrow at the grazing Earth Deer. He kept really quiet so as not to startle it. Hidden in a tree he was almost invisible among the leaves.
He streamed magia around the arrow. An Earth Deer's coat is really tough and a normal arrow will snap unless it's enhanced with magia. He took a deep breath as he pulled back the drawstring, his aim remaining unchanged.
He exhaled and fired the arrow. It was so fast, the arrow was almost a streak. The deer made a loud grunt as it fell on its side, the arrow sticking out of its neck.
Arthur jumped down and landed with a soft thump. He brushed off the leaves on his shoulders and stood up. He is of average height with a slim frame, long black hair tied in a low ponytail, and fair skin.
His eyes are like amethysts, bright purple. He wore a black jacket over a grey shirt and black pants.
He stood over the deer corpse with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Splendid shot young master", the family butler, George said as he came out of the bushes he was hiding in. He is a tall man in his sixties with graying hair and a huge mustache. He wore a two-piece suit.
"Thank you, George. And please stop calling me 'young master'. Just call me Arthur. If you call me 'young master' again I'll ask Sophia to light up that mustache of yours", Arthur warned with a smile.
George instinctively covered his mustache, "You wouldn't dare!", he said in horror.
Arthur laughed, "I was just kidding George. But still, try to call me by my name at times. You should learn from Sophia. She's not as formal as you."
George's mustache quivered, "Young master, that girl has no etiquette and manners.", he said huffily.
Sophia is George's niece. An aspiring warlock, she is studying at the Warlock Academy in Lunaris city, an academy where students who want to be warlocks are taught.
She is staying in Night Manor and works as a maid to cover her expenses in the city and academy. Unlike her formal uncle, Sophia is a lively young woman a year older than Arthur.
The bushes beside them rustled as a boy and a girl came out of them. The boy is eighteen-year-old Justin Night and the girl is his sister Stella, who is three years younger than him. They are Arthur's cousins who came with their parents from the elven nation of Elveria. Both are elven half-bloods as their mother is an elven princess.
Justin has bright blonde hair and an athletic build. He wore a blue shirt and shorts. Stella has black hair similar to Arthur's and a petite frame. She wore a light green sleeveless dress. Both have pale skin and slightly pointed ears.
"Hey there Arthur! Looks like you got us the main course for tonight.", Justin waved with one hand and was holding onto a basket full of fish from the nearby river. "You got yourself a pretty good haul in that basket Justin.", Arthur responded with a chuckle.
Justin patted the basket, "This was a good opportunity to practice my attribute." He has the Beast attribute which enabled him to partially transform into any beast that has a similar magia level as him. He was able to catch the fish easily by transforming his hand into a bear paw.
Stella has the plant attribute and could already control multiple trees within a radius of 10m around her. She's a natural-born genius, which is kind of common in the Night Family.
She used her ability to get fruits from really high trees. She put her basket on the ground and inspected the Earth deer corpse.
"You are amazing, Arthur. You were able to pierce the tough coat of an Earth deer with just an arrow enhanced with magia. You don't see that level of magia control everywhere.", she said with an impressed look on her face.
"Says the girl who fortified her Mindscape at the age of six.", Arthur replied with a chuckle.
The Mindscape of a warlock is where the Magia Codes they learn are stored along with their memories and thoughts.
A warlock can expand his or her Mindscape by learning new codes. A warlock's knowledge of magia codes is reflected in the size of their Mindscape.
The vast endless space where Seventeen met Prime for the first time was in fact Prime's Mindscape. He wills it to be empty or else he won't have space to enjoy his coffee
The Mindscape is also responsible for the control of magia flow in a warlock's body. If it is not strong enough, the Mindscape will get damaged by certain Codes and the magia flow in the body will be disrupted.
This could lead to a warlock being unable to use Codes or in the worst case, falling into a state of catatonia for the rest of their lives.
Usually, warlocks fortify their Mindscapes at the age of twelve. But Stella was able to do that at the age of six. Which made her one of the many geniuses in the Night Family.
"Stop that Arthur! You're embarrassing me.", Stella's face went red. She gets embarrassed when someone compliments her.
Arthur and Justin laughed as they loaded the deer and the fish inside the carriage they brought with them.
The carriage is attached to a pair of mechanical horses. They are made of strong steel and are powered by magia cores. They are controlled by streaming magia through the reins.
These horses are masterpieces created by the Callens, an Arken Family renowned for their inventions and craftsmanship.
These horses are better than their living counterparts. They never get tired and do not go out of control when spooked. They don't eat food as they are powered by magia and are known to be faster and stronger than the average horse.
Soon the carriage is loaded and the three of them got in. George held the reins and activated the horses. Their jeweled eyes glowed blue and they neighed mechanically. The carriage lurched forward and soon they were bobbing up and down the forest path.
"So. I heard from your sister that you want to be a Cardinal Knight. Is that true?", Justin asked as he leaned back against the carriage. "Yeah, you're right.", Arthur replied.
After graduating from school with basic warlock knowledge, students have to train by themselves to improve their abilities for two years.
After these two years, they can go to a Warlock Academy to do higher studies in magia manipulation or join the Adventurers Academy in Elveria and become an adventurer or join Cardinal Academy in Crystalis city and become a Cardinal Knight.
The Cardinal Knights are known as the defenders of Arken. They consist of Warlocks and highly trained soldiers under the command of a Cardinal, the strongest warlock in a nation.
There are five Cardinals and each protects a nation. The current Cardinals are addressed by the first five attributes: fire, water, earth, air, and lightning.
Each Cardinal has 5 squads under his or her command. In total, there are 25 squads in Arken and each squad is led by a Squad Captain.
Arthur's older sister, Alice Night is the captain of the 24th squad under the Air Cardinal and is also the youngest squad captain in a hundred years.
"Ever since I was young, I wanted to be a Cardinal Knight so that I can protect everyone, and after I learned about my condition, the desire to become one only increased.", Arthur said.
"Ah.", Justin understood what he meant.
Despite his excellent magia control, Arthur doesn't have an attribute. One has to have at least one attribute to become a full-fledged warlock.
This was a surprise as Arthur's older siblings had single but powerful attributes and his parents were really powerful warlocks.
Warlock scholars were stumped and could not find an answer to his condition. The fact that Arthur doesn't have an attribute was swiftly noted by the power-hungry elders of the Night branch family.
They claimed the prestige of the Night Family cannot be tainted by an 'incompetent' in the main family. They proposed to exile Arthur.
Justin's father John Night, who was the Family head, rejected this proposal saying that an Arken Family's prestige is not in the presence of its warlocks, but in the ability to protect the Family and their homeland.
This didn't go well with the elders. So John came up with a compromise. The main family can move to Lunaria while the branch family can move to Solaria since both nations were established by the Night Family. The elders agreed to this and soon the branch family moved to the Night manor in Solaria.
The main family consisting of Arthur and his two siblings moved to the Night Manor in Lunaria. Even though John was a member of the main family, he was already settled in the capital of Elveria, Elvenglade city.
"I don't know how to thank uncle John for helping me back then.", Arthur said. Justin rested his hand on his chin and smiled, "Well, you can help me with a favor I have."
"What is it?"
"I'll tell you after dinner", Justin winked.
The carriage neared the end of the forest when it suddenly stopped with a jerk. Arthur almost fell face-first into the fish basket. "What happened George?", he asked.
"Young master. It seems like we are in trouble.", George replied. "What do you mean trouble?", Justin asked as he looked out of the carriage and saw the problem, "Ah jeez."
A pack of blue-colored wolves had surrounded the carriage and are growling as they came forward. They are big, at least 7 feet. Blue sparks came out of their paws and fur. Stella frowned, "Those are Spark Wolves."
They are high-level CAT 5 beasts with the lightning attribute, so they can use lightning attacks. They are extremely fast, and vicious, and hunt in packs led by an alpha.
It seems like this pack was attracted by the earth deer corpse. Arthur, Justin, and Stella got out of the carriage and faced the wolves. "George. Get ready to leave when we finish.", Arthur said as he pulled out a sword with a purplish tinge and took his stance.
Justin smiled as he put on red fingerless battle gauntlets with a rugged design, "Hey Arthur. Are your sword skills on par with your archery?", he asked.
Arthur smiled, "They're much better. I'll be sure to impress you."
"Alright then. The one who brings down the least wolves will have to go the rest of the way on foot.", Stella said as she took out her magia orb. It is used to help her channel magia like a wand.
"Deal."
The trio stood back to back and got ready for battle.